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Fractured Fiction (Part 3)

I read “Goodnight Moon” with my son and drag it out so I can smell his clean hair for one second longer. He slides off my lap, slowly padding across the room to crawl into his little bed. Tonight he wants to pull the covers up by himself, “thank you very much,” and isn’t interested in a goodnight kiss. I imagine his sullen baby face on the body of a teenager, and wait until I am out of earshot to bawl like the baby that he no longer is.

The Boxer

He traded Ring Around the Rosie for black rings around both eyes. His mother fretted and fussed, but he had to put food on the table somehow.

Wish

He smiled as the hair fell down around his bony ankles, not wanting to incite panic in us all. He was always thoughtful like that.

I wish I wasn’t hyper-sensitive from years of walking on eggshells, wish I hadn’t noticed that his eyes didn’t wrinkle the way they normally do, wish I hadn’t run away to avoid watching him die.

Unfinished Business

I forgot to replace the battery in my alarm clock last night. Now here I stand at the bus stop in the middle of a blizzard, my wet hair collecting the errant flakes as they fall. Now when the police tell my mother that I died of pneumonia, she will die of embarrassment as she learns that someone saw me without every strand of hair perfectly in place. Worse still, she will see the layers of my unmade bed peeled open like the onions she used in every dish I ever ate as a child.

One thought on “Fractured Fiction (Part 3)”

Your pieces are all so intimate and bare and relatable. You wear your heart on your sleeve, and you’re so in touch with your emotions that it beautifully translates into your prose. Each piece rolls off the tongue and is so “readable” (if that makes sense). In “Letting Go”, this line is amazing: “I imagine his sullen baby face on the body of a teenager, and wait until I am out of earshot to bawl like the baby that he no longer is.” The honesty here shows sensitive layers to your character, transcending the prose. Lovely!